


The Twenty-Third

by tucker529



Series: The Twenty-Third [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Marauders, Marauders era, Multi, Pairings Not Listed, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:04:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1520150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tucker529/pseuds/tucker529
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Only the dead have seen the end of war." -Plato</p><p>One day may change a life. It certainly has theirs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fall of Azkaban

**Author's Note:**

> First and foremost: This is entirely alternate universe.
> 
> Secondly: This starts February of 1979, essentially about two and a half years (plus a couple months) prior to when James and Lily Potter are killed by Voldemort, however, because of part one: everything is up for grabs. Does that mean that things won't end up the way they did canonly? Nope, that doesn't necessarily mean that, but it does mean that going everything from here on out is completely and utterly changed.
> 
> I hope that you guys enjoy it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them. – J R R Tolkien

**February 23 of 1979 - The Loss of Azkaban**

_The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them. – J R R Tolkien_

 

There was a silence that hung over the table that held the majority of current Order members, no one quiet able to break the tension yet or able to say anything in the situation that they were likely stuck in. There was very little that they were able to do and even less that they were willing to do that would mean them risking the current numbers that they steadily held, not when they didn't know what the damage was going to end up being once all of the chips fell.

Instead of speaking about what was going on outside of those walls, their eyes were locked on the small eagle that was sitting on the thick wooden table that Fabian Prewett had sent them just twenty minutes earlier with the distinct clear message that Azkaban had fallen. It was a stronghold that the ministry had held for centuries and a place that they had been able to put all their prisoners, wrong doers or anyone that had acted outside of the law. Of everything that they had talked about possibly losing or the the places of stronghold that they could find shattered? Well, that was one place that had never been on their radar. 

It was a former Gryffindor that spoke up though, Lily Evans, a tall redhead that was normally so lively and energetic that it tended to take a special kind of human to keep up with her and now she was the one that was breaking the silence in the room. Her voice was barely above a whisper with James Potter being the only one that had heard her before she cleared her throat and spoke up when Dorcas Meadowes had elbowed hear in the side. "What are we going to do , Professor?"

There was a pause as eyes began to break away from the Patronus that was beginning to fade to look at the pair, Professor Dumbledore digging around in his pocket for a lemon drop before looking at the group. "What do you mean, Miss Evans?"

"Azkaban," she said exasperated, shaking her head for a second before signing. "They just took Azkaban and I just.... Professor, did you think that they had the kind of forces that they would be able to accomplish something like that ? There have been Aurors there everywhere on that island since they started convicting Death Eaters, how did they make it in there?" Her voice was soft by the time that she finished speaking, throat tight as she tried not to let her mind wonder from what she was focusing on right then. "This changes everything, doesn't it?" 

"Indeed, it does change things. It does not serve one well to underestimate their enemy and I believe that we may have done so. An attack was a long time coming and I imagine that the Minister may have seen that, even if not in as large of a scale as this."

There were a few moments of pause as the group processed before a loud clang of sound rang through the halls and a shout of 'I'm fine!' before the small wait of silence before Sirius Black burst into the room with more than a slight commotion, dropping into an empty seat next to Peter Pettigrew. "Sorry I'm late, mates, was at the pub," he said by way of answering to the curious looks, raising his eyebrows at Remus Lupin when his long-time friend narrowed his eyes at him and shrugged his shoulders.

The silence that followed the former Black heir was long and pronounced, the fact that the man's presence had somehow created a wholly new dynamic within the room was not lost to anyone not to Sirius as Oeter leaned over and told him what was going on with the Auror's and the Ministry. The man's hand immediately had gone to his hair, knotting his fingers in the strand as he struggled to keep his breathing even for a few seconds before letting out at heavy sigh. 

It was Emmeline Vance that spoke next, her own fingers knotted together in front of her while she took slow, even breaths. One of the few Slytherins that were still a part of the Order at the present moment, the strain that was created was keenly felt when she was the only one at a particular meeting. Her shuddering breaths did nothing to hide the fact that she was not the least bit comfortable with what had happened. "Professor? How many...?" she started before glancing around the room at the other members for a split second before focusing her gaze on Dumbledore. "How much damage do you think will have been done to the Ministry by this?"

There was little that anyone could do as Dumbledore leaned back into the chair he sat in, stroking his beard a few times as they could see that the wheels in his head were turning. The vast majority of students that were in front of him were the ones that he had watched grow into the adults that now sat before him. While it was hard to imagine for an outside why it would be that they joined up to a cause that seemed to be skeptical at best in survival, loyalty never lacked much for the group. These were students who should have never had to go through this war, let along be the ones that were now required to fight it to secure their futures. "That is something that is yet to be determined, Miss Vance, though I do imagine that there will be a loss of manpower."

By any means, it wasn't an easy situation to be in to have to be the ones sitting and waiting with no way of effecting the outcome of who lived or died, the fear of losing even more of their own numbers then they already had becoming more prominent in their minds as time went on. More than a fair portion of their members were Aurors or various other Ministry personnel and even now there were more then their fair share unaccounted for. It was little comfort that Fabian's Patronus had been the one that brought the message given that it was nearing a half hour previous since they'd had any communication and any man could have easily been taken down in that timespan. 

Marlene McKinnon was bound to be a target that would attract particularly interest of any Death Eatersm being a Pure-Blood that had publicly sided along Muggle-Borns and Half-Bloods, right alongside both Alice and Frank Longbottom. To those in the small room, these were some of their closest companions and friends and that wasn't even counting every other Auror and Ministry officially that could be involved in the attacks. 

There was a shudder that rippled through the room when Emmeline's wand started to move across the table, the blonde taking a few seconds to steady her hands before she moved to grab the thin stick of wood and nodded her head at Professor Dumbledore in a half acknowledgement. "That would be Saint Mungo's," she said softly, her hand reaching to squeeze Dorcas' shoulder as she stood. Despite being a Half-Blood, Emmeline had managed to secure a place within the Healer program at Saint Mungo's upon finishing Hogwarts and had opted to continue her time there despite having finished. Yet it was days like this that made it of particular value to the Order, the ready access to certain information that many others wouldn't get for hours or days at times, particularly when one was no longer living and was simply just injured.particularly who was no longer living and who was just simply injured.

"Vance, I'll walk you out," Sirius suddenly said, nodding at the Professor and clapping Peter on the shoulder as a way of helping himself stand before he joined Emmeline in the doorway, walking out with her. 

There were always going too be relationships that were simple and clear, like how James and Lily had somehow morphed into being; because after all, any couple that fought for each other the way that they did was something particularly helpful in communicating just how much they were willing to fight to make it work. Emmeline and Sirius were everything that was more complicated, however. 

Emmeline was the one that paused at the entrance of the building, turning to look at the man that was close behind her before she arched one of her eyebrows in question when the mans hand went to her elbow and he stepped into her personal space. Of anyone else in the Order, this was probably the one that she had the most difficulty figuring out and for the most part she had learned to just roll with whatever the man would throw at her but this was a particular time that she didn't know what it was that he was trying to communicate without words. And she was about on the edge of asking him to spit out whatever it was without sounding too harsh. 

There was some exhaustion in her eyes that showed day in and day out these days, the sleep-deprivation seeping into her bones to the point that her cousin, Mary MacDonald, was sincerely beginning to notice just how out of sorts Emmeline was these days. 

It was Sirius that seemed to continually confuse her definition of friendship, the lines blurring to the point that they lingered into something romantic and while neither would say it? The look that he was currently giving her, the one that Emmeline couldn't quite figure out what it meant, it also made her stomach flip pleasantly and warmed her in ways she didn't even bother to try to put it into words. "You floo if anything goes wrong, do you hear me?" he finally said. 

If the circumstances were anything different, or less severe, Emmeline would have tried to keep the chuckle from escaping her lips, but she couldn't keep it from escaping in the least. Really though? Of all the places that Sirius should be worrying about in these moments, Saint Mungo's and Emmeline should probably be right at the bottom of the list, but somehow he had still managed to find some importance in it to pull her aside to say something. His fingers were flexing against her wrist, eventually causing her to step just close enough that she could smell his aftershave and let out a heavy sigh of acceptance. "The moment that anything happens? I promise you will be the first call that I make, Black."

For the most part, it was something that would simply placate him, that would make him worry just a little bit less so he would let Emmeline slip out of the house and go back to the real life that she led outside of those walls and away from secret organizations and lying to her family. That was for the most part, at least, but Emmeline also knew that he was also high on her list of people who would know the moment that something went wrong if she was able to get a message out, right alongside Professor Dumbledore and her long-time best friend, Dorcas. "I need to go, Sirius," she said softly, pulling her hand away before he let the fingers of his free hand leave a trail up her arm, cupping the back of her neck and letting his fingers knot their way into her hair, wrapping his other arm around her waist and tugging her close for a few moments. 

The silence stretched for a few minutes while they stood there, her breathing tight as she tried to focus on something other than what all could go wrong until she felt a rough kiss against her brow and suddenly Sirius was gone, his warmth quickly following him while he strode back down the hallway towards the meeting.

-

Saint Mungo’s was more chaotic than she’d seen it when she Apparated into it’s halls, the amount of people running every way causing her to freeze for a moment for fear that she may have ended up in the wrong place before she caught sight of Healer Strout out of the corner of her eye. Emme let out a breath of relief before the woman took hold of her elbow, tugging her into what seemed to be an empty, for now, office and started to ramble.

For the most part the majority of people seemed to be relatives of the people who had been part of the Ministry’s attack teams and even some of those who had family members being house in the cells at the prison, but it was also apparently driving both Healers Strout and Smethwyck up the walls and Mary was still attempting to sort through the first wave of Aurors that had been sent to them. There was little information that was able to be pried out of the older woman, though Emmeline did fix her with a calming draught and instructions to start consolidating the current patients into rooms together when possible and making notations of what was open on each floor.

There was a lot of blood in the intake room, though there was almost an almost constant presence of the substance these days there was no doubt that Emmeline was wishing that she hadn’t worn a pair of her favorite shoes when she stepped in and was immediately shoved a file and pointed in a direction saying that she’d been requested.

Hours passed before Emmeline had a chance to step back out of that particular part of the hospital, her feet more than sore and specks of blood splattered across the majority of her exposed skin. There was little denying the fact that there had been something different about this particular battle, the fact that the Death Eaters were definitely out to make some of the Auror’s pay for things that they had done underneath the line of duty. There were others that she knew weren’t going to make it through the evening and those had always been the worst for her to manage and try to make comfortable.

The simplicity of the situation made her bones ache, the questions lingering in her head as she slipped into one of the rooms that had been set aside for the Healers to rest. Just exactly how outnumbered were the Aurors with the Death Eaters? She had almost asked Frank Longbottom when he had stumbled in with a dislocated shoulder and a particularly nasty ankle that she couldn’t quite look at without feeling her own begin to ache, but Mary had pulled the man away before Emmeline had been able to approach him to try to get more information.

When she finally made progress in getting the blood off of her hands, it was now a bright pink from the repetitive motion of rubbing, her body exhausted and overwhelmed as she made her way back into the halls when she caught sight of Benjy Fenwick. A fellow Slytherin, he was one of the few that Emmeline did know wasn’t actively in support of Lord Voldemort and it certainly helped that she knew the man was involved with the Order. Then again, it certainly was a comfort for the fact that the two had grown close since she had finished Hogwarts. 

So maybe it wasn’t exactly the kind of behavior her mother would have loved when she dropped down next to Benjy on the floor with next to no preamble, but maintaining the proper way of things was not on Emmeline’s mind afterthe day that they all had. Running a hand through her hair, Emme gave up after a few seconds before tying the strands in a messy bun and looking over at her friend for a moment before nudging him gently with her shoulder, “So, that weather was crazy today, wasn’t it?” she said softly, giving him a small smile.

“You know what I hate?”

“Umm…” she said softly, pulling back sos he could turn to get a good look at the man. “Apparently conversations about the weather?”

“That even though I purposefully didn’t sign up to be an Auror, I’m supposed to just be someone who works in the Department of Mysteries and all that — nope, the moment that there is an insane breakout at Azkaban and Death Eaters flood the island, apparently that means that anyone with battlefield training is now an Auror,” he growled, his arms crossed against his chest as he leaned his head against the wall behind him.

“Ben…” she said softly, careful not to touch him in case he was as angry as he was coming across at that moment.

“Nope, no — it’s _fine_ , because I signed my life away to them,” he said, turning to glare at Emmeline when she bursted out laughing, shaking her head as she buried her face in her hands.

Really, it was probably one of the least appropriate times that she could have picked to go through and end up laughing, at least since she had finished Hogwarts but between her exhaustion and Benjy’s reasons for being upset? Well, there was no amount of ridiculousness that was lost on her in those moments. “I’m sorry, you’re right, I’m just so tired and really?” Emme said, patting the man’s shoulder now that he was a bit less tense after looking at the young woman. “You’er complaining about having to fight when _Azkaban_ was just taken over by Death Eaters in the middle of a war when, really? Things like job titles are a little irrelevant in my book now.”

The glare that Benjy gave Emmeline in response made her let out a soft chuckle, “Oh bite me, Vance.”

At that, Emmeline turned her head and sunk her teeth into Benjy’s shoulder, unable to resist cracking up when the man yelped and shoved her off to the side before settling down and simply rubbing his arm. “You did tell me to go ahead and do it, Fenwick,” she said with a shrug. “Come on, we need to find Professor Dumbledore so you can tell him what you saw and I need to find a proper couch to fall asleep on.”

-

Most days it was a struggle to imagine the fact that outside of the Order Headquarters, the world was in the midst of the chaos that no one was really seeing an end to, their lives thrown into a kind of turmoil that wasn’t often seen. And if anyone was completely honest with themselves, they all still wished beyond reason that there was no way they were actually experiencing what their eyes were seeing.

The silence, however, seemed to encompass the building was almost comforting and reliable and Emmeline wouldn’t trade it for anything after the constant noise that had engulfed Saint Mungo’s since the Aurors were ordered to pull back from Azkaban. There wasn’t much that Emmeline was able to do there anymore, not since she had got the majority of the wards sorted enough to give room to fit as many as they could, the halls crowded with healers that were trying to help everyone. One less pair of hands wouldn’t result in anyone losing their lives, particularly when she was well aware of their need back at the house.

For the most part, however, there wasn’t much for Emmeline to do even when it came to the house, at least besides going through and brewing more potions in preparations of other injuries that were inevitable. James had fallen asleep with his head buried in Lily’s lap, his girlfriend’s fingers still rubbing gentle circles in his hair while her other hand was steadily gripping some kind of book about strategy, the black mess of hair that she had complained about for years becoming messier with each stroke. Remus was nowhere to be found, though she had a suspicion that he had gone to find Mary, despite her lack of knowledge when it came to the Order. Both Prewett brothers were sitting in the corner with Caradoc Dearborn and Benjy playing one of the many rounds of Exploding Snap they’d gone through the past hours.

Marlene Mckinnon, another one of the blonde’s in their group, had yet to come back from the Ministry after leaving Azkaban, although Caradoc had mentioned that the woman was sorting through an impressive pile of paperwork that she’d been neglecting as of late in her own way of coping. In reality though, of all the people that Emmeline had in the back of her mind to worry about, Marlene had never ranked particularly high and she was more than safe given her location anyways. It was Dorcas flitting around through every room and gathering people’s teacups and making sure they had food that had peaked Emmeline’s interest, even moreso than the dozing Sirius that had curled up in a chair by the fire. 

Although her best friend wasn’t necessarily known for being the world’s calmest individuals, it wasn’t often that Emmeline had seen her this wound up. It was likely that they would have seen someone like Alice trying to make sure that everyone was taken care of, but it seemed that the fellow blonde didn’t quite know what to do with herself yet.The ministry had surrendered Azkaban to the Eaters officially, so Emme shouldn’t have been surprised that everything seemed to have been shaken at its foundations. Still, her eyes kept gravitating towards Dorcas whenever she entered the warmth of the den with another cup of tea that she was shoving into the boys’ hands. It only took a split second for Emmeline to move and snag Doe’s hand when she walked by, giving the girl a soft look for a second before smiling and nodding her head, “It’ll be okay, I promise.”


	2. Shifting

CHAPTER TWO

March 23 of 1979 - Shifting

_You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. – Margaret Thatcher_

 

Maybe hindsight was always going to be twenty-twenty and trying to lighten the mood inside Headquarters wasn’t the best idea that anyone had, but there was something more serious and intense that was lingering in the midst of this war since Azkaban fell and everyone was more than thankful for the distractions that the Marauders and Prewett’s were giving everyone. Granted, she hadn’t expected that they would also be turning a section of her hair bright purple, but she supposed that it was a danger that she was going to have to live with from here on forward. 

There was also a good possibility that she could place the blame solely in James’ hands that her hair was purple, or that she had somehow managed to have it happen and no one had figured out how to reverse it yet. Instead, Emme didn’t have the heart to squash the fun that they were having in the midst of this.

It felt like it had only been days since Azkaban had been broken into by Death Eaters publicly won a large battle against the Ministry and more than a few witches and wizard had gone into hiding since then, even though it had been weeks since another attack. Although she limited the amount of contact that she had with her parents these days, it change the fact that there was a distinct likelihood that even her family would venture into hiding until this war was over. If it ever really was finished.

Logically she should be glad, relieved even when it came down to the fact that the could be safe but the thought of them disappearing from her being able to find them made her stomach lurch and her heart ache at the thought. Emme didn’t want to lose what little family she did have. Everyone had already lost so much as it was and it felt like this was just getting started and there wasn’t much that she could really do to stop it.

An explosion in the manor caused her thoughts to halt, her body already moving into the hallway towards the sound, half terrified that the Death Eaters had found their little hideaway in the countryside and were attacking before she heard Lily yell James’ name is something that was definitely nothing like panic and was certainly more towards scolding. The relief that washed over her took more than a few seconds and gulps of breath, though the slow in her step was immediate. Never, in her life, would she have said that there was a good chance she would be spending the majority of her time with impulsive Gryffindors who apparent were not particularly good at dealing with Exploding Snap anymore.

Emmeline rounded the corner into the large library that had been acting as a planning room and certainly the room that they spent the majority of their time in to find two distinct groups of people: those that were in the midst of strategizing in the back half of the room, walls lined with maps of various locations in London and even Azkaban and those that were just trying to escape. Unsurprisingly, it was the group that had been trying to let off some pressure that they’d all been under was now encompassing the four Marauders that were covered in soot. Not to mention the section of poor Peter’s blonde hair that was clearly singed and letting off a bit of smoke.

Both James and Sirius were laughing at the sight while Remus was licking his fingers, putting out a few of the little pieces that must have had bits of flame to them before shaking his head and patting Peter on the shoulder. There certainly was a very clear reason as to why Emmeline wasn’t fond of Exploding Span and the fact that there was pain involved was certain one of those reasons.

Still, it was the quiet hush that seemed to fall on the back of the room in the midst of the bit of activity surrounding the Marauders that pulled her attention away from the group. The the fact that Caradoc and Benjy were having a quiet argument with each other while pointing at one of the maps and shaking their heads whenever the other spoke? Well, it definitely didn’t deter her from entering the room completely, squeezing Lily’s hand as she passed by the redhead before making her way to the other group, her eyebrows pulling together as she sat in the chair across from Benjy, nudging the man with her foot.

There was a sutter in the conversation for a split second when they both realized that the former Slytherin was sitting with them before starting back in on each other. “You can’t just expect the Ministry to explore whatever whim comes into that pea-sized brain that you have, Fenwick!”

“Oh, but your particularly little chess moves should be explored?” Benjy rebutted, cocking an eyebrow as his armed crossed against his chest, a heavy silence in the small group for a few moments before the men broke eye contact and Caradoc was pointing back at the board of maps.

“Merlin, it was one bloody time, Ben!” Caradoc growled, tossing a quick in the general direction that Benjy was standing before Emmeline reached forward and snagged it from the air. “You can’t bloody use something that doesn’t _exist._ You Unspeakables never seem to realize that!”

“Merlin, are you seriously arguing about something this ridiculous?” Emme said, shaking her head for a few moments before turning at a noise she heard from the back corner, smiling softly when she saw James standing next to her chair before bumping her hand against the Potter heir’s hip and pointing at the maps. “These don’t have that underground tunnel that goes from Mungo’s and the Ministry,” she commented lightly, pulling the attention from the small group to her as they blinked.

There was no stretch of the imagination that would make anyone say that Emme specialized in plans or battle attacks and Emme wouldn’t dare imply that she was better suited for something like than the two men that stood in front of her, because realistically there weren’t many that would. But there were bits and pieces of information that Emmeline still had access to that Caradoc hadn’t been able to get his hands on yet and apparently the fact that the tunnel underneath Mungo’s hand’t been closed up like the public was told wasn’t something that they’d found yet.

“ ‘line’s right,” James Said, his voice light and happy as he shrugged his shoulders, “There should be a supply room somewhere in the middle too, you know — in case of a attack that results in one of them being locked down.

“You’re talking about the one they filled when Grindelwald was trying to take over?” Caradoc said, standing and walking over to the tables that had piles of paper, starting to shuffle them around in an attempt to find something. “That should have been closed… Merlin, thirty-five or forty years ago.”

“No one ever said that politicians told the truth,” James said with a shrug, ruffling Emmeline’s hair before catching a couple strands of the purple color and grinning as he tugged on it. “Officially it’s been closed off, but if there was an emergency we could use it, it’s worth noting on those pretty little maps of yours.”

"Political rumor," James said with a shrug, ruffling Emmeline hair before catching a couple strands of the purple color and grinning as he tugged on it. "Officially it's been closed off,but if there was an emergency we could use it, it's worth noting on those pretty little maps of yours.”

“Cut it _out_ ,” Emme bit out, swatting at James’ hand before he gave another sharp tug and she shoved his torso away from her chair, rubbing her scalp where the hair was connected and glaring in his direction for a few moments before looking back at the pair. “What’s the plans for? I thought we weren’t doing any attacks yet.”

“Contingency,” they said together, shrugging their shoulders before pointing at a map that resembled Saint Mungo’s and causing Emmeline to stand and join the pair, crossing her arms in front of her for a few long moments before nodding.

“How did you even get those?” she said softly, brushing her fingers across the sketches before pointing at one of wings of the third floor. “They’ve changed this, just a couple months ago, broke down some of the walls and are using it for potion storage; ended up saving a bunch of lives after the attack because we would have ran out. Actually, I —“ she started, hesitating for a few seconds before taking a breath, her eyes flicking to James for a second before he nodded his head. “Mary would be better at looking at these. She’s worked on some of the plans to change the wings that aren’t being used with the spike of patients that we’ve had.”

It was a few seconds of silence where Benjy’s eyes had connected with Emmeline before he finally let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, giving up on communicating whatever he’d tried. “Moody got the layouts from the Ministry so it wouldn’t look suspicious, but if we need Mary’s viewpoint on this? Emme, it’s going to be best to bring her into the Order now, probably would be safe for her anyways.”

“No!” Emme said suddenly, shaking her head as she stepped back from the group. “Look, is there another way that we can just… do this without her knowing what it’s for?”

“Emmeline…” Benjy started before Caradoc interrupted him.

“I can tell her that we’re looking at it for the Auror’s,” Caradoc said gently. “It’s realistic and honestly? It would be more surprising if we weren’t looking into things like this.”

There was a hesitation before Emme finally nodded her head, Benjy stepping forward with his hand at her elbow pulling her to the side before she held a hand up, “She’s safer not knowing what goes on within these walls, for now at least, please don’t go changing that yet.”

“You’re being ridiculous, Emmeline, she _needs_ to know. Mary’s safer knowing the whole picture and not walking around blind with just pieces of it. Whether or not either of us like it, she’s involved and she’s going to end up on board sooner rather than later and you’ve got to get that through your thick skull!” Benny said, his fingers tight against her elbow when she tried to pull back to leave, James standing silent between the group as Caradoc took a step back from the pair to give them some kind of peace in the conversation.

Emme was shaking her head in the middle of Benjy’s words, not quite wanting to hear what the man was saying sa he spoke and taking a shuddering breath as she tried to figure out what to say, how to explain what was going through her head as to why she didn’t want Mary involved in something like this. Not when all their friends were in the middle of this war in ways that no one could quite explain in an open forum. Their lives this past year had been full of quiet conversations and hidden meanings and there was a large part of Emmeline that didn’t want to live with that reality anymore when it came to her friends and family, but sometimes it meant that was going to keep them safe. “My parents are leaving the country next week, just… I need more time before the only family I have left is in the thick of this, please. Just… I need a little more time,” she asked quietly.

Emme hadn’t been willing to break eye contact with Benjy quite yet, her mouth opening and closing for a few more moments after her request before he was the one that pulled his eyes away from her and shook his head for a moment before walking off, neither of the other men quite sure what to say before James let out a heavy sigh. “You two are bloody batty,” James said, nodding once to Caradoc before heading back to the group that had resumed another game of Exploding Snap, apparently with much more luck than the previous on, though it seemed as though Peter was being far more cautious after his last game.

“Benjy’s not wrong, you know, Vance. We aren’t going to be able to keep Mary out of this forever, she’ll find out soon, this is just going to buy us a little bit more time,” Caradoc said gently, sitting in one of the armchairs and pulling over a stack of parchment, dipping a quill into the ink and scribbling some words on the paper before looking back at her. “She’s smart enough to know there’s something going on that no one has told her.”

Emmeline nodded her head before moving over to some of the sketched out plans that the pair had sitting on the table, her fingers brushing against the ink covered parchment for a few moments before she looked over at the man. “Chess makes you good at this stuff, huh?”

Caradoc let out a small laugh as he glanced at what Emmeline was focused on before nodding his head, “Yeah, it helps a bit. I was also Captain of the Quidditch team for a couple years while I was there, so that helped more. Benny’s just sore that he’s not thinking about these things before me.”

“It’s a Slytherin thing,” she said off-handedly, pausing only when Caradoc gave her a look, raising his eyebrow. “We plan. A lot of what we do is within self-preservation, but we pride ourselves in being able to figure things out from both sides and you’ve managed to accomplish that without being a Slytherin. It would piss me off too if I was in Benjy’s shoes.”

“That makes… a bit more sense, I’ll admit,” Caradoc said cautiously. “The Ministry isn’t going to attempt to retake Azkaban back, it’s too much of a liability and frankly? They don’t have enough resources to retake it without risking losing something else in the process.”

“They should have thought ahead, it was only a matter of time before they went after something big, if only to make a point that they could,” she said, running a hand through her hair for a second beforeshe was glancing back at the group that was still playing cards. “Why aren’t you with everyone else blowing off some steam?”

“Because, I’m not good at letting the bad guys beat us,” Caradoc said, setting his papers off to the side and following Emmeline’s gaze towards the group. “What’s going on with you and Black? You’ve seemed cozy recently.”

“It’s…” Emme said, hesitating for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders and let out a heavy sigh, “Nothing.” Emmeline shook her head for a few seconds before letting her gaze move to Caradoc. “There’s nothing going on between him and me, the same way there’s nothing going on between you and Adelais, right?”

“That is different,” Caradoc said, a hard tone underneath his words, Emmeline’s eyebrows raised in question before she nodded gently. “It’s completely different than whatever you keep saying isn’t going on between you and Black, and Vance? You don’t have any business approaching that.

There were a few moments of quiet where Emme wasn’t entirely sure what to do or what she could say because she had vasty miscalculated what the conversation was between the two of them. Then again, she was fairly certain that she had seen Adelais and Caradoc tucked away in a corner together at one of the pubs near Saint Mungo’s and it didn’t help his case that he was listed as Adelais’ emergency contact on the forms that had been dropped at the hospital. “Why do you keep it a secret?” she asked softly.

“Why don’t you take a chance?"

She felt herself freeze before she realized that she didn’t have words, considering for a few seconds that maybe she should just leave the room instead of dignifying his statement with an answer. Instead she found herself shifting on her feet and running a hand through her hair before looking back at the group and nodding her head. “This war changed everything, including what I can and can’t do when it comes to this.”


	3. Black, White and Read All Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As I go back threw and rewrite it so it makes sense? I'm discovering that I way overuse commas.

 

CHAPTER THREE

April 23 of 1979 - Black, White and Read All Over

_If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you. – Jacqueline Carey_

 

**The End in the Beginning?  
by A. Fenetre**

To say that the world as we know it is rapidly changing would be an understatement, but to say that it is changing for the better would be a statement that many, even within the office of this great newspaper, would have conflict saying. It is undeniable that the recent rise to power that Lord Voldemort and his followers, more commonly known as Death Eaters, has changed the dynamic of how each of us live our lives, but mostly in light of the recent surrender of Azkaban by the Ministry, it is the people of this great nation that have begun to question just what it is that our leadership intends to do concerning this brewing war.

With more Muggleborns and those that support them targeted each day, many of which have ended up with threats on their lives, it is hard for even this reporter to sit back and wonder just what it is that the Ministry intends to do to protect its people. Although the Minister of Magic has publicly stated that they are increasing the patrols of the Aurors, as well as increasing the number of recruits that are allowed into the programs for the enforcement of our laws, the question begs as to why he has not opted to do this months, or even years, previous to this incident. 

There were Aurors lost within the battle that took place at Azkaban just two short months previous to this article you are now reading, and it is undoubted that all of our lives have been touched by this, whether by the number of people that have now been released back to the public by the surrender or by the fact that now that Dementors are roaming free around the British countryside. One is unable to say that the Minister is unable to living up to the standard that has been set before him by those that previously held that office and have begun to call for Minister Crager to resign and reopen the office for those to be more suitable.

In the midst of the changes and the pressure that the Ministry is under, however, we have seen strong leadership arise from expected and unexpected places. Professor Albus Dumbledore has stepped up in many ways to show leadership within the defense of the Muggleborns, Half-Bloods and many of the Purebloods who have stood in between those who have been targeting them, though it was to be expected that the well-known war hero would stand in the gap for those who are more defenseless. One of those that have been unexpected, however, is the outspoken and determined Barty Crouch Senior, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Crouch Senior has shown in the past months that he is of the belief of beginning to fight fire with fire and is making some headway in gaining approval for the Auror's to freely use the Unforgivable Curses against the Death Eaters if attacked, although this decision has been met with significant amounts of controversy.

While we see many of those in the political spectrum trying to turn the tides of this war, there has been little to no progress made as of late concerning anything changing in the future, and one may wonder just what it is that we will lose before someone starts to stand up for what is right and truly fight back without the concerns of what it may impact politically. This reporter, in particular, hopes that it will not end in the reality of more lives lost in the name of peace.

-

Tossing the paper on across the table towards Sirius, Marlene McKinnon narrowed her eyes at her longtime friend and former lover, “They’re bloody ridiculous, because it’s not as though they want to kill people…” she huffed, slumping against the couch as the man picked it up, his eyes scanning the front page and the picture of the Wizengamot that was in session, certainly from the last few days given the grim expression that was on the majority of members faces.

It might have been hard for either of Sirius or Marlene to imagine the differences between the two of them, the fact that they had both managed to end up in complexly different places in their lives than they were just two years earlier, but it didn’t really matter. Though it wasn’t as though either of them would necessarily have identified their relationship as anything committed or anywhere near what it probably should have been when they were in Hogwarts, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t care about each other. Most days it was quite the opposite when it came down to it actually and today was absolutely no exception to that rule.

“They’re not wrong,” Sirius said, folding the paper and setting it on the small table before falling down next to Marlene on the couch, propping one of his feet up on his knee and leaning back against the cushions. “Crager hasn’t done anything that is benefiting the Ministry in this war and the lack of response he’s given? Definitely has been in Voldemort’s favor entirely.” It didn’t take long for Marlene to shift on the couch and fix him with with a nasty glare that had the elder Black smirking over at her with a knowing look, “Awe, did I poke at little Marlene’s favorite politician?”

“You’re such an arse, Black,” Marlene said simply, slumping back against the couch and propping her feet against the table in front of them. “I know the Ministry isn’t doing enough to fix this,” she said softly, “I just had the idea of more people having to die to jolt them into what’s really going on, I hate the idea that they aren’t understanding how serious this is now.”

It was a heavy subject even if it was under the best of circumstances but Marlene had been on the front lines of too many of the battles that the Death Eaters had started and her involvement was bound to be more involved than she liked. It was a sobering thought for anyone and it didn’t make Sirius’ past feelings towards Marlene any easier, no matter the circumstances that were around them now.

There was moments of silence that passed through the room at Marlene’s admission, as though each of them were waiting for the other to follow it up with something else or make some sort of move, whether it was to leave the room or start a fight, but neither happen. It made the hair on the back of Sirius’ neck stand on edge and caused him to move to sit next to the fair haired woman, nudging her shoulder with his to pull her out of her thoughts. “It’s war,” he said simply, pausing for a moment to bite his tongue before glancing over at Marlene, his gaze settling on the woman’s eyes while the soft, almost pained look in her expression caused him to falter for a second before he said something. “You’re an Auror, Marlene, you signed up for this shit.”

“If I remember right, there had been a conversation about you and James joining me when we were in school; you know, before you left me in the cold,” Marlene snapped, her expression hardening before pushing away from Sirius and turning so she could look at him straight on, her eyebrows raised in a half-challenge.

“I made a judgement call as to where I would help most, Marlene, and you know it; don’t go playing the martyr,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes at the woman. “You craved the action you’d get as an Auror, doing something that could be acknowledge and that was your driving force.”

The movement that Marlene made to shove him off of the couch was quick and so sudden that sirius hadn’t even realized that the woman was coming towards him until it was far too late, and definitely when he had landed on his arse, his back flat against the ground. It took a moment longer to realize that the air had been knocked out of his lunch and he was gasping greedily for more air before he finally scrambled to push himself back up towards Marlene, his weight on his elbows while his eyebrow quirked upwards.

“I didn’t get an engraved invitation to the Order when we finished Hogwarts like some people,” she grumbled, shaking her head slightly and falling back against the cushions of the couch. Marlene was still upset, as though pushing him off the couch they’d been sharing hadn’t been enough to eliminate the frustration she was feeling towards her ex in the least. Instead, the fact that he hadn’t really been affected by it to increase enough that when he shifted to push some of the hair out of her eyes, Marlene was batting at Sirius’ hand like a toddler.

There was no one that would be able to say that the world wasn’t probably aware of just how annoying Sirius was able to be to Marlene and he certainly wouldn’t say that he didn’t know how to push the woman’s buttons that would make her react and push back just as much as he challenged her. It didn’t exactly stop him from making a move towards her; despite the fact that he knew it should have, it was the comfort and knowledge that he knew Marlene through and through that caused him to reach up and pull her the rest of the way down to him, pressing his lips against hers and nipping at the soft skin in an attempt to coax a response out of her.

Maybe it was the fact that their friendship provided a certain amount of comfort and knowledge that neither was going to do something that would hurt the other or maybe it was the reality that they knew what the other needed almost as though it was second nature that had probably caused Marlene to respond the way that she did, her fingers threading into his hair and pulling him a fraction closer to her instead and pulling away. It wasn’t long before Sirius was sitting up, one of his hands pressed against Marlene’s back to shift her against him.

It didn’t take much longer before Sirius had one of his hands threaded in Marlene’s hair while the other one had slipped up the back of her shirt, splayed against the skin there as his thumb rubbed the skin. Marlene, to her credit, hadn’t explored anywhere near as much as Sirius had even though her fingers kept drifting out of his hair and slipping underneath the collar of his shirt, nails gently scrapping against the skin there when someone else cleared their throat and the pair tore apart, Sirius landing back on the floor with a loud thud and a small yelp from the Gryffindor.

“You know, I would normally say that I am surprised, but I think that disappointed would be a more appropriate adjective to use in this situation,” James said, his voice coming from the doorway while his eyebrows were raised as he looked at the pair.

To say that its as obvious they were caught in the middle of something neither should have been involved with would be pretty ridiculous and simply didn’t need to be stated out loud, no matter the circumstances. Sirius still hadn’t lifted his head to the point that James was able to see it, but Marlene was already tugging her shift back down and shoving Sirius hands away from where they’d landed on her legs as she shook her head a few times in horror if being caught making out like they were still in Hogwarts. James, however, to his credit hadn’t said much more than a few words and was very likely not going to repeat anything that he had seen in the room. It didn’t change the fact that he was clearly aware of the fact that the two former Gryffindors shouldn’t have been the ones that he caught making out in one of the living rooms of Order Headquarters.

Quick to stand, Marlene slipped out of the room behind James with a whispered apologize for what he’d seen, ducking her head in an attempt to keep the fact that her face was heated red away from the inevitable gossip that seemed to float around the house. Pausing for a second, she glanced back at Sirius for a moment before seeing her friend nod for a split second before leaving and letting James deal with the elder Black.

The silence that enveloped the room after the blonde’s departure was something that they could almost feel the need for someone to say something, James finally entering the room completely, falling onto the couch in a heap, hitting Sirius’s shoulder with his hand, “You’re sleeping with Marlene again?”

“Nope,” Sirius said simply, sitting up and glancing over at James for a few seconds before sighing and shrugging his shoulders. “It seemed like a good idea at the time though.”

“And that conversation that we had a couple weeks ago…?” he lead, his eyebrows raised again as he leaned over to look at Sirius again for a couple minutes before sighing heavily and shaking his head. “You can’t lead girls on like that anymore, and as great as Marls is? You’re lucky that she didn’t hit you for pulling shit like that.” 

James may have considered Sirius his brother to a certain extent but that didn’t eliminate the fact that he was still fond of both Marlene and even Emmeline to some extent. It certainly didn’t take away from the fact that how his best friend tended to treat women in his life was okay either and while Marlene might have been willing to put up with a lot from the man over the years, and had been more than willing to as time went on, even James was willing to say that Sirius would end up losing Emmeline if he tried to play a game remotely like this.

For the moment part Sirius was a barrel of fun and was a blast to go through and enjoy life, particularly when it meant that he was able to watch his friend’s interactions with women, whether it was something that was solely friendship or something that was more than that. It was more than clear that Emme had done a fair job of getting underneath Sirius’ skin, whether she liked to admit it or not, and even Lily had been able to tell that there was something more going on than either part was disclosing to the Order. Nothing certainly helped the fact that everyone was consistently in danger these days and the connections that happened in Hogwarts hadn’t necessarily disappeared just because they were now on two different sides of a war.

It was a complicated matter under the best of situations but there was only so much that James could do that was going to protect the people that were around him.

“Marlene understands what’s going in my head,” Sirius said simply, shaking his head for a moment before dropping it into his hands for a few moments, “She’s like you and Emmeline is just — she’s so different. It isn’t playful or fun and it’s different. She pushes me to be more than who I am now.” There was a pause when he finished before James hit him upside the head, jolting forward and bumping against his knees at the sudden movement, Sirius’ mouth dropping open when he turned to look at his best friend. “Bloody hell, Potter. What did I do to deserve that?”

“Marlene is _familiar_. When this get touch with Lil and me, when they get serious — and don’t make that pun right now — it terrifies me that I mess it up like I have always done with her, so I spend too much time with you guys to blow off some steam.” James shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, letting out a heavy sigh before looking to Sirius. “It hurt Lily when I push her away because of my own fears; which is ridiculous because it’s Lily. I fought hard to get her to give me a chance when she didn’t want me to and what you’re doing withMarlene? With Emmeline? You’re going to lose that battle and be left in the cold with both of them.” 

He might have had all the natural charm in the world, but that didn’t necessarily mean that Sirius had any idea what he was doing when it came to establishing a serious relationship with a woman. There was no doubt that it was due in part to the fact that he had never had really had one, though Marlene had been the one that had come the closest and even then it had been more casual than anything else that James could think to describe it. They had been each other’s first and as much as James wanted to believe that Sirius had been in love with his childhood friend, he was fairly certain that it had been something that they had merely thought rather than actually felt.

What James had seen in the past six months between Emmeline and Sirius though was something that he couldn’t quite define by words and he didn’t really have much of a desire to attempt to when it came down to it. Emmeline was a power unto her own and it was something so drastically different compared to what James or Sirius had grown up with in their families or even Gryffindor that half the time James wasn’t entirely sure how to act around the woman, but his best friend seemed to be inexplicably draw to her as much than just a friend. he had watched them together, particularly when Sirius had followed Emmeline out when Azkaban had fallen and even inthe conversations that they had about the woman left James more confused walking away when he did coming in. Marlene had been clear cut and Sirius had known exactly where he stood with her and what it was that he wanted, but mostly importantly he had been good at communicating that to other people. It was Emmeline that had thrown the entire group off kilter and left Sirius stumbling over his feet on how to approach the situation for months.

“This —“ Sirius started, shaking his head for a few seconds. “It isn’t like you and Lily, it’s been pretty damn clear to everyone that the two of you are great together for ages,” he said, his fingers racking through his hair for a moment before pushing himself up and sitting on the couch next to James. “Marlene’s great, she’s perfect and she’s probably perfect for me. She’s a Gryffindor and gets along great with all of you, but Emme is just…” There was a small smile on Sirius’ lips as he tried to figure out what to say for a few moments before shrugging his shoulders. “Everything. She pushes me and it pisses the hell out of me, but she pushes me to do more with my life than goof of and sit on my are when I’m not doing something for the Order. It should be wrong, it _is_ wrong because if you look at it — she’s a Slytherin and friends with people like Rosier and Snivillus and I don’t get it, but somehow she seems to just fit. I don’t want to not have her around or to see something happen that ends with her hurt, I can’t do that.”

It didn’t take long for James to rest a hand on Sirius’ shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze before smiling and nodding his head. “Then I wouldn’t tell her about what happened in this particular situation — not if you don’t want her hurt then, because this whole conflicted thing that you’ve got going on right now? I don’t think that it is entirely one sided.”

There was a comfortable silence in the room as they settled on the couch, Sirius still leaning with most of his weight on his elbows, resting against his knees before letting out a slight laugh and shaking his head. “I’m just thanking Merlin that I wasn’t walking in on you and Lil’s in the throes of it again!” The shove that James gave Sirius caused both men to burst into laughter as Sirius rubbed his arm.


End file.
